Pakistan, June 14 -- The claim that America will soon cease to be a superpower is too simple. It is not entirely invented, because China has become a genuine rival in industry, technology, trade, diplomacy and military planning. But it is still misleading. The stronger conclusion is that the United States is no longer the world's only uncontested superpower, yet it remains the leading global power. The US-China comparison shows not American collapse, but a shift from unipolar dominance to hard strategic competition.

China's rise is real. The Financial Times has described China as "comfortably the world's trading superpower," noting that its trade surplus rose to almost $1 trillion and that its export machine worries not only the US but a...